oaths and perjury
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 3 anchored passages
forsworn · oath · oaths · perjuring themselves · perjury · swear · swear falsely
in the texts
Letters
The problem of honoring oaths without compelling perjury.
For even if there seems to be a canon which permits such men this, yet we have learned by experience that those who break their oaths do not prosper.
Against Conon
The religious and legal practice of swearing, contrasted with perjury and manipulative oath-taking.
This oath I was at that time ready to take, and now, to convince you and those who stand gathered about, I swear by all the gods and goddesses that I have in very truth suffered at the hands of Conon this wrong for which I am suing him;
Well then, if people break into houses and beat those who come in their way, do you suppose they would scruple to swear falsely on a scrap of paper in the interest of one another—these men who are partners in such great and such reckless malignity and villainy and impudence and outrage?
and who, if forced to swear, will take only a customary oath, imprecating destruction upon himself, his race, and his house, is more to be believed than one who swears by his children or is ready to pass through fire.